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Proactive Technology Management (PTM) champions the use of innovative low-code tools like Lovable for rapid user interface design and development and Supabase as a “Backend-as-service” for robust low-code data persistence, both to accelerate development and deliver solutions more efficiently for our SMB clients.
While these platforms offer remarkable development speed and reduced time to value when used by a talented and professional development team, a significant challenge arises when users without deep development or database security expertise attempt to build full-scale applications with these tools.
Such “citizen development” can lead to insecure backend configurations, particularly within Supabase, as highlighted by recent media attention and the resulting vulnerability report CVE-2025-48757.
This vulnerability is not an inherent issue with the platform but instead highlights that the platform is not secure by default when used by novice users unfamiliar with such database features as Row Level Security (RLS).
PTM’s developer-centric approach entirely mitigates these risks; our seasoned professionals ensure rigorous RLS implementation and manage complex database features with expert care.
This issue underscores our core belief: while low-code tools are transformative, achieving secure, reliable, and production-ready applications necessitates the professional expertise that seasoned developers such as PTM’s Fusion Development team delivers.
At Proactive Technology Management (PTM), our mission is to empower small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) by making advanced technologies accessible and impactful. We function as “efficienciers,” dedicated to AI-accelerated Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) for our clients that drives real-world results.
In this pursuit, low-code and no-code platforms play a pivotal role, enabling us to rapidly prototype, develop, and deliver value to our clients. They are integral to how we help SMBs innovate and achieve new levels of operational excellence.
One such tool in our arsenal is Lovable. It’s a platform designed for the visual development of application frontends—the user interfaces (UIs) people see and interact with. At PTM, we leverage Lovable extensively for UX Design. Its intuitive environment allows our team to quickly create interactive prototypes, detailed mockups, and dynamic wireframes. This accelerates the design process, facilitates crucial early client feedback, and ensures our solutions are truly human-centric, aligning perfectly with our Lean UX principles.
Beyond design, Lovable also serves as a powerful Rapid Application Development (RAD) tool. Under the guidance of our expert developers, it helps us swiftly construct the UI for functional Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) and internal applications, significantly reducing time-to-market.
To power these frontends, we often pair Lovable with Supabase. As an open-source Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS) built on the robust and respected PostgreSQL database system, Supabase provides essential backend services—including data persistence, user authentication, real-time capabilities, and file storage.
For PTM, Supabase offers a scalable and flexible backend solution that, when configured correctly by our expert team, forms a secure repository for the data that drives our clients’ applications.
The combination of Lovable for the frontend and Supabase for the backend, when wielded by PTM’s experienced professionals, allows for the impressively fast development of secure, full-stack applications.
The democratization of software development through tools like Lovable and Supabase is genuinely exciting. It opens doors for more individuals and businesses to create and innovate. However, this accessibility presents a double-edged sword. The ease with which a functional and visually appealing frontend can be assembled using a tool like Lovable can sometimes create a misleading sense of completeness or inherent security.
The reality is that the backend of an application, particularly database security and data integrity within platforms like Supabase, requires a distinct and specialized set of knowledge.
This expertise isn’t automatically conferred by the ability to use a frontend development tool, no matter how intuitive that tool might be.
The general risk we’re observing in the broader industry is that users without deep development experience or a solid understanding of database security principles might build and deploy applications that harbor significant, unaddressed security flaws in their backend data persistence layer (e.g., within their Supabase database).
They might focus on the visual appeal and functionality of the Lovable-built frontend, inadvertently overlooking the critical configurations needed to protect the data that powers it.
This isn’t necessarily a flaw in the tools themselves, but rather a challenge stemming from a potential gap between user preparedness and the comprehensive understanding required for secure end-to-end application deployment.
A recent and prominent illustration of this challenge is the attention surrounding a Semafor article titled “The Hottest New Vibe Coding Startup Lovable Is a Sitting Duck for Hackers“, and the related Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures entry, CVE-2025-48757. This news has, understandably, caused concern.
However, it’s important to frame this CVE not as an isolated or inherent flaw solely within Lovable, but rather as a spotlight on what can occur when the backend security configurations are not adequately managed by the application’s developer or user. We will explain why this is the case in just a moment.
So, what does CVE-2025-48757 actually describe? The issue arises from applications built with Lovable that connect to Supabase backends where PostgreSQL’s powerful Row Level Security (RLS) feature is improperly configured or missing entirely.
RLS is a fundamental security mechanism in PostgreSQL (and thus Supabase) that allows administrators to define highly specific rules about which users can access or modify which individual rows of data in a database table.
Think of it as a gatekeeper for your data at the most granular level. For any application handling user-specific information or requiring different tiers of data access, RLS is not just a good idea—it’s essential.
The vulnerability highlighted by the CVE manifests when those building the application make critical errors in setting up RLS in their Supabase database. This could mean RLS isn’t enabled at all on tables containing sensitive data, or, more commonly, the RLS policies themselves are flawed.
Lovable’s role in this is that it facilitates the creation of the frontend and its connection to Supabase.
According to the CVE’s own documentation on workarounds, Lovable’s “Publish” feature will help ensure that RLS policies are enabled in all tables and notify if they aren’t. This notification is a helpful step.
However, Lovable itself does not, and realistically cannot, write the complex, application-specific RLS policies for the user.
These policies depend entirely on the application’s unique data model, user roles, and specific business logic (e.g., “a sales agent can only see leads in their assigned territory”). Blaming Lovable for user misconfiguration of Supabase RLS is akin to blaming a car manufacturer if a driver ignores traffic laws and causes an accident.
The tool provides capabilities; responsible and secure use requires knowledge and diligence.
At Proactive Technology Management, our commitment to building secure applications is not just a talking point; it’s a foundational element of every project we undertake.
Our RLS Implementation Philosophy is rigorous:
Beyond standard RLS, we also address more nuanced security considerations, such as the interaction with PostgreSQL’s SECURITY DEFINER views. A SECURITY DEFINER view executes with the permissions of the user who owns the view, not the user querying it. If Lovable, through its processes, were to create such views owned by a role that bypasses RLS (like a table owner, by default), it could inadvertently create a security loophole if not expertly managed.
My discussions with Michael Schreiber, our Director of Fusion Development, often delve into these granular PostgreSQL behaviors to ensure our architectural patterns pre-empt such risks. We carefully manage view definitions and ownership to ensure they bolster, rather than undermine, our RLS strategies.
This depth of understanding is crucial when working with powerful, abstracted low-code tools.
Low-code platforms like Lovable are undeniably powerful. They accelerate development, empower more people to build, and can be instrumental in achieving the kind of rapid innovation PTM champions. However, true efficiency—the kind that leads to sustainable growth and robust operations—is built not just on speed, but on reliability, scalability, and security. This is where professional expertise becomes indispensable.
The adage from the Semafor comments, “Each new app or website created by novices is a potential sitting duck for hackers,” though stark, highlights a genuine risk. When the ease of frontend creation is not matched by a commensurate understanding of backend security, data architecture, and scalable design, businesses can inadvertently expose themselves to significant risks.
PTM’s Fusion Development approach is designed to bridge this gap. We harness the velocity and agility of tools like Lovable and Supabase, but we do so within a framework of professional engineering discipline.
Our experienced architects and developers ensure that critical aspects like security, data integrity, performance, and scalability are not sacrificed for speed. We help SMBs in their journey towards AI-accelerated BPR by ensuring that the solutions we build are not just quick wins, but enduring secure and scalable assets.
PTM remains unequivocally positive about the potential of tools like Lovable and Supabase, when applied correctly and responsibly. They are valuable components in our strategy to deliver cutting-edge, efficient solutions to SMBs.
The recent discussions around CVE-2025-48757 should not be seen as a wholesale condemnation of these platforms, but rather as an important learning opportunity for the entire industry about the critical need for responsible adoption and the enduring value of expertise.
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Are you looking to leverage the speed of low-code without compromising on security? PTM Fusion Development helps SMBs like yours drive innovation and growth, securely. Our unique approach integrates Data (Soul), Hyperautomation (Body), and AI (Mind) into a powerful flywheel for continuous improvement, ensuring your digital transformation is both rapid and robust.
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